Samantha Parkes recalls how her sense of faith changed her freshman year at Graceland University in Lamoni, Iowa.

“I went through an intense period of growth and questioning. You take the ideas that are given to you by your parents and your faith tradition, and you begin to ask yourself, ‘Do I believe this because I was told to believe this way, or because I believe it?'” says Parkes, 25, now working toward a master’s degree in English at Kansas University.

She found out that while she shared the views of her church and denomination (Community of Christ) on central issues like peace, justice and reconciliation, other teachings weren’t as important to her.

Parkes, who attends church at University Community of Christ, 1900 University Drive, continued to practice her faith throughout college.

“I knew that I didn’t have to believe exactly everything that the church believes to still participate with the congregation (in Lamoni),” she says.

She’s an example of the way spirituality and religious practice of young adults are often profoundly affected during their college years.

Away from their parents and home church for the first time, some students jettison the faith traditions they grew up with and quit attending worship services.

Others, confronted with new perspectives and rubbing shoulders with people of many religious backgrounds, start asking serious questions about their own faith for the first time.

Still others, raised in secular families, discover clarity about God and their lives by connecting with outreach groups run by campus ministries or local churches.

Their spiritual responses to college vary widely. But it’s fair to say many students have a common experience.

“They have a normal expression of faith development. They’re moving from a kind of dependency upon their peers to find out what makes sense of the world to saying, ‘How do I see the world?'” says the Rev. Thad Holcombe, campus pastor of Ecumenical Christian Ministries, 1204 Oread Drive.

“Instead of saying, ‘How do I agree with somebody else?’ they’re trying to redefine that for themselves.”

Embark on faith journey

The Rev. Joe Alford has noticed a distinct pattern among students in the 12 years he has served as chaplain of Canterbury House, 1116 La., the Episcopal Church’s ministry to KU.

“Initially, we might get an influx of freshmen and sophomores in the first couple weeks of school. It used to be that they would unpack and move in on Saturday (at KU), and their parents would stick around on Sunday to keep an eye on the kids,” Alford says.

“They would say, ‘Why don’t we go to church?’ Then (after parents left Lawrence), the traditional churches would never see the students again.”

The pattern is so pronounced among KU students that it gave Alford an idea.

“One year we thought of having a bumper sticker (made) saying, ‘We’re Not Your Parents’ Church.’ Students don’t want to go to the church (or denomination) their parents took them to. They found it boring or irrelevant,” he says.

The Rev. Steve Kawiecki thinks fewer college students today are seeking out churches and worship services.

“I don’t know if they have been burned by traditional religion, if they found it to be too constrictive in some way. Perhaps churches haven’t done a good enough job in realizing that all of us grow in different ways in our faith development,” says Kawiecki, president of the KU Religious Advisors, a group of representatives from many campus ministries.

He is also associate pastor of student ministries at First Baptist Church, 1330 Kasold Drive.

Some students, however, have their sense of faith ignited for the first time while they’re away at school.

“We work with a lot of students who come from either a nominal religious background or no religious background. What I’ve seen in my experience is people embark on a faith journey when they get to college,” says Erik Fish, regional leader of Victory Campus Ministries.

“They’re just discovering the benefits of following God and becoming involved in a Christian community. A lot of students have a faith transformation, rather than lose all their traditions.”

About 150 KU students are active in Victory Campus Ministries, which is allied with Morning Star Christian Church, 998 N. 1771 Road.

Raising questions

How religiously active a college student will be often depends upon his or her level of involvement in a faith tradition while growing up and in high school.

“Some who have been super involved take their first year off (during college) to get some space. They use it as a time not necessarily to shop around for other religions, but more just to take a break,” says Jay Lewis, executive director of KU Hillel, 940 Miss., the university’s Jewish organization.

“But we also have some students who were not religiously involved in high school. When they show up at college, they come in (to Hillel) and say, ‘I’ve got something that’s part of my heritage, there’s something that’s missing in my life.'”

Still other Jewish students seek out Hillel because they’re looking for a spiritual connection, a sense of community or simply a place to socialize.

Amber Wiens, a 20-year-old KU senior from Topeka, thinks many college students experience a kind of spiritual drift.

“I think that they kind of take on this internal faith — ‘I know what’s right, and I know what’s wrong, and I have God inside of me.’ They’re kind of in that stage where they want to find out things for themselves, instead of listening to people who have been where they are and learning about what God and the Bible says about their lives. They’re trying to write their own rules and standards,” says Wiens, active with Victory Campus Ministries.

Holcombe of Ecumenical Christian Ministries offers some advice to incoming KU students.

“I would say take advantage of college to do exploring, to raise questions, to talk to people. There will be people out there who will tell you, ‘Here is the answer.’ What I hope students will do is say, ‘I want you to hear my question, don’t just give me an answer.'”